You need to remember where you have been.
You need to remember where you are.
You don't need to know where you are going.
You don't need to know where you will end up.
Recognize the familiar.
Take advantage of the unknown.
Welcome to my Cup of Cosmos. Enjoy!
(and if you need a second cup, check out my other brewing blogs under my profile)

Sunday, November 30, 2014

October Notes

October and November blew through the year like a gust of wind...and so I am catching up.

“I remember it as
October days are always remembered, cloudless, maple-flavored, the air gold and
so clean it quivers.” –Leif Enger, Peace Like a River

Did you know that bourbon and apple cider is what fall is
made of? We made this discovery over the weekend, after we assembled a coffee
table in our living room and channeled Julia Childe and Nora Ephron and made a
chocolate torte and pumpkin spice cake to ring in autumn. I boxed up my summer
dresses, downloaded all my Greece pictures from the summer, and pulled out my
woolly socks and chunky sweaters. Fall has finally arrived to Brooklyn.

I have been feeling melancholy and settling into a lifestyle
of simpler things, small groups, sharing a glass of wine with a close friend,
taking part in intimate conversations about life, happiness and grand plans.
I’ve spent Friday nights with my fancier kicks stored away in my closet,
wandering the kitchen in leggings and messy hair, standing over boiling pots of
winter soups, lighting expensive candles for no one but myself, and finding the
quiet corners of home to be the most inviting.

In a city that never sleeps, it is up to me to find the time
to hibernate. And with a new job that comes with the same 9-5 routine, I have
made it a goal to find ways to make no day quite the “same” as the last. I
refuse to set a pattern of same-ness
in a world that revolves around “same.” And so I have started a list to throw “same”
out the window, and take autumn by storm with new ideas, new routes, new
recipes, books, ideas and plans.

• Change the way you walk to work; get off at a
different stop, walk further, walk on the other side of the street, walk with
your chin up, take your ear buds out, give life a listen, and get lost in your
own neighborhood.

• Add something new to an old recipe. This week I
took a simple boxed cake and added chopped apples and cinnamon to give it a
little extra chunk and a little more kick. I added bourbon to apple cider, and
I added fresh chopped carrots to my chili.

• Change up your routine. Run in the dark. The
other night when I got home, instead of changing into leggings, I changed into
my running clothes and headed out into the dark.

• Instead of reading before bed, run through
French flashcards. Learning a new language before falling into dream land can
only help cement all those tricky verb changes right?!

• Buy expensive candles. Lots. And keep rotating
them. Most importantly, never save them for a special occasion.
• Dump a toxic friend. Dump the friend who only
makes you feel terrible about yourself, who never put in the time that you put
into the friendship. Dump them. Life is too short and we are too old for this.

• Wear a different perfume. I bought a new
perfume, it’s made from pine trees (can you tell I am homesick?) and I have
worn it to work a few days in a row, carrying a small forest on my wrists.

• Clean in the morning. Sweep while the coffee is
brewing, before you head out the door. You will be amazed what a nice surprise
this is when you get home in the evening.

• String twinkle lights (that are supposed to go
outside) inside, and put them in your kitchen, above your sink and counter, in
a hap–hazard arrangement, plug in, and enjoy. You will find that you actually
do spend more time in the kitchen enjoying them.

These are just a few of the changes that I have made (so
far) to ensure that no day is the same, because routines and same-ness is so yesterday.